No One Should Be Called “Good for Nothing”
by Maurice Munzara (Headmaster, Samaringa Primary School, Zimbabwe)
Blessing Mukwanda, is a student at my school and a Special Olympics Zimbabwe athlete. I had an opportunity to spend five days with Blessing in 2006, when I helped him acquire a passport to travel to China for the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games. It was then that I developed real insight into the needs and abilities of pupils with intellectual disabilities we have at Samaringa Primary School Reserve Unit and the pains of the peripheral treatment they get in many ways.
Because of his intellectual disability, Blessing repeated Grade One twice—first at Dangamvura Primary School in Mutare in 1996, then at Gatsi Primary School in Honde Valley in 1997. In 1998, he re-enrolled in Grade One at Samaringa Primary School. Before the Resource Unit for the Mentally Retarded was opened in 2004, Blessing's attendance at school was quite erratic. Even now, at 17, he cannot write his own name. And until Special Olympics Zimbabwe chose him to participate in the 2007 World Summer Games, he was the subject of ridicule from other pupils because he was the oldest student in the school and “good for nothing.”
His success in Special Olympics Zimbabwe, as a “natural” in athletics, in 2006 earned him recognition not only with other students, but also with the local community and the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture.
Blessing has never known his biological mother and lives with his father and stepmother in a rural neighborhood. He speaks of deprivation and discriminatory treatment.
During my stay with Blessing, I developed a sharper interest in children like him in my school, and the need to improve their lot—an ominous responsibility. I now also understand and am grateful for the tremendous work that Special Olympics is doing to enrich the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, their families and their communities.
At the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai, China, Blessing competed in the 200- and 400-meter races and placed seventh and fifth respectively.
Learn more about Special Olympics athletes.
Support Special Olympics athletes.
